Caught Within The Mist
by Dark-Knight27
Summary: Set not long after Damnation. Leon has another asignment. However memories come flooding through at every turn, memories of a night that he will never forget. RATED M for sexual content.
1. Chapter 1

_Well here it is, my Leon story for everyone who liked the Ada oneshot. Thank you to everyone who commented and favourited it. I'm glad you enjoyed it. _

_This was originally going to be a oneshot as well, but I've decided to make it into a two to three part mini story instead. Sorry for not getting this out sooner; I wanted to have the first part posted __before Halloween but have been busy with other things. I hope you all enjoy this first chapter. And as always, I don't own _Resident Evil_._**  
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**Caught Within The Mist**

**Chapter One  
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No one ever called at this time, not to Leon's fairly reliable memory. Not once during the late night hours, during the dark half of the clock, had he ever experienced this kind of out of the blue occurrence. And yet here it was, real and unflinching, and also at ten minutes to midnight.

The knock on his apartment door had pulsed out from its wooden frame; its subtle but at the same time blatant intent rang out through the air, slithering through the calming rainfall of his shower; it called him to attention in one solitary beat of his unsuspecting heart. The only thought that crossed his mind at that point, as he ceased the rush of warm water to listen, was: that's never happened before. No one had ever knocked his door at this time.

It couldn't be work, he knew that much: Hunnigan would have called if that were the case, so that was out of the question. And currently he lived too far from any friends or family for _that_ to be considered a possibility. Someone he didn't know? It was looking more and more to be the case as the seconds rolled by, as Leon grabbed a towel, hastily tying it around his waist before stepping out of the bathroom, oblivious to the dampness of his feet as his swift steps moistened the carpeted flooring.

There was a handgun sitting within a small cupboard just next to his front door. A little bit on the paranoid side? Perhaps. But Leon had no shortage of enemies, especially these days; caution was something he had learned the hard way, and nowadays was second nature.

A second knock came just as he was moving through his hall, just as the front door came fully into view. This one was more urgent in its force than the last.

'Just a minute,'

Leon's hair was drenched. He swept dripping strands out of his eyes with one hand as he neared the door, reaching for the small cupboard with the other. Within a couple of fluidly quick motions Leon had the gun in his hand. He slid a full clip home, thumbing back the hammer. He then stepped over to the spy hole, leaning in close, taking a look through the tiny circle of glass; there was no one there, or at least no one that he could see.

The faintest of frowns crinkled against his eyebrows. Someone might still be there, he thought? He kept to the right of the door as he grasped the handle, his gun securely in his other hand, ready and waiting. A short breath was pulled ever so gently into him as he turned the handle, slowly opening the door. As the gap increased in size, and his view of the hallway beyond came further and further into his focus, Leon's vague spell of tension slowly departed. There was no one at his door at all. Even after peeking his head outside, surveying both ends of the long stretch of hallway, he saw nothing, nothing except a dimly lit area that was swallowed in an almost numbing silence.

A deep sigh of realisation escaped him as he slowly closed the door; in hindsight he only had himself to blame for his slipping up. He'd been so absorbed as steaming water cascaded over and around him, and as that same heat clung to his senses of awareness, that he hadn't even considered that the knock hadn't come from outside his apartment door. It had come from within his apartment.

It was at that moment that he felt it, someone behind him; the tables had just flipped against him, performing a very awkward and somewhat embarrassing one-eighty in the simple margin of a few seconds. However a faint smile flickered across his lips for a moment, as a familiar scent brushed across his nose.

'You know, we're going to have to stop meeting like this eventually.'

'Why is that?' a female voice purred in response. 'Isn't it more fun this way?'

'That all depends on your definition of fun, I guess,' Leon said, slowly turning around. 'Though, I shouldn't really be surprised anymore. Should I?'

'Yes, I think it's a little late in the game for you to make that mistake.'

She was standing right there, almost mirage-like in nature but at the same time existing solidly in his reality. As Leon turned fully to face her his mind, his body, every fibre of his existence down to the very essence of his being was emptied out, refilled with a seductive and swirling red awe. It was a deepening fascination that was electric. It sparked through his arms and legs in feverish jolts per second at the sight of her. Leon wondered if things would always be this way with her? Mostly likely, he thought.

She was dressed – surprising him somewhat at first, since he hadn't seen such a change in her wardrobe colour – in black of all things. It was shaped in the form of a long cocktail dress, very much like the one he had seen her wearing years before; it hung on her by two thin fabric strands, exposing her slender shoulders. A slit ascended the left side of the dress, revealing the majority of one leg, and Leon thought that he might have lingered on this detail for a little too long before he finally corrected himself. Her intense and entrapping eyes seemed to notice this, as he saw the barest taunting of a smirk fly across her face. It was as if she was fully aware of the power she wielded, and the effect it produced in him; it was an ability she used to triumphant effect, and he doubted that he could fight against this power for long – if at all. Even on her worst day she was truly a spellbinding sight to behold.

Leon could exercise a guess if he wanted, could analyse this situation ceaselessly until his head fell from his neck from exhaustion, but he was certain that any attempt would be fruitless. No amount of effort on his part could conclude the question of what she was thinking at that very moment, or what she might have been feeling. At any rate Leon hadn't expected this, certainly not a second time. Was he happy about this, he asked himself? Maybe he was. No. A part of him certainly was pleased, and always would be. Deep down, somewhere in the lowest pits of his brain, he thought that maybe that was the worst part.

'So what's the special occasion?' he asked. 'It's a little late to go out to dinner.'

Ada raised an amused eyebrow. 'Not this time, Leon. I was just passing through and thought I'd drop in.'

'Oh,' now it was Leon's turn to be amused; somehow he wasn't convinced that she had just happened to pass by. This was deliberate. 'So outfits like that are just part of your everyday life then?'

'I suppose you could say that,' a sensual sort of joy slipped into her expression. 'That, and its less to take off.'

Leon's blood was suddenly propelled by his accelerating heart, kicking into a perpetual sprint at her response; of all the things he had expected from her, all the little quips that seemed to always flow out from her like liquid velvet, her choice return hadn't been on the list. Was she playing with him, he wondered? Or had she really just dropped in for such an encounter?

The last time she had decided to show up in his life again had only been a few days ago, and was to be sure the single most breathtakingly explosive night. It had taken the entirety of his life, snatching every other event from the day he was born to this very moment and rendering them all miniscule by comparison. It was quite simply a glowing fire, one that raced with emotion and sensation within that vastness of murky and uncertain waves of a violent ocean.

'Well,' he said, pausing for just a moment to fully catch his breath. 'I guess I should be flattered.'

'You guessed right,' Ada's eyes shifted, moving down to the towel, and the fullest smirk swam over her. 'Though I can already see that you were expecting me.'

Leon couldn't even fortify the barest fraction of his usual strength of character in preparation for her words, and the wave of embarrassment that they created within him. Ada's smile of verbal victory could be seen easily enough, so he supposed that his sudden awkwardness must have shown on his face like a giant bright zeppelin of exposed feelings. He would have wondered how she always managed to somehow be so dominating, but then again since he was just standing there with nothing but a towel covering his dignity then he guessed that his reaction was understandable – at least to him, and to her.

He had picked up a faint chill on his skin when stepping out of the shower, but now he felt the oncoming rush of warmth, of the kind that he hadn't expected to experience tonight. It was a good feeling, but at the same time it wasn't, and Leon only held this mixture of happiness and regret for one reason and one reason only: he wanted more than this, so much more than this that sometimes it pained its way through his thoughts and through his heart like some dreadful disease, like an addiction that held no trace of a cure, and probably never would.

'Are you going to put that gun down?' she asked.

'Oh,' he said. 'Yeah, sure,'

'This wasn't the kind of welcome I expected, Leon.'

He placed the loaded gun on top of the small cupboard before resuming his place in front of her. 'I didn't know you were coming,'

'Well where would be the fun in that?'

'Again,' Leon shrugged. 'That depends on your definition of fun.'

'Ok then,' Ada crossed the short space, coming face to face with him, a simple and breathless inch holding them apart. 'I suppose we do differ on a handful of things.'

Leon felt the raising of his eyebrows. 'Only a handful?'

'But,' she went on. 'I think its safe to assume that my definition of fun, in this case at least, matches yours quite nicely. Or perhaps the shape of that towel is telling me lies?'

Leon didn't speak at first, but instead had to clear his throat as an almost strangling but euphoric shudder took hold of his lungs. He saw the deep pools of wanting in Ada's eyes; those sinking pits without end, full of a near timeless mystery that now held a hunger that looked almost ravenous, one that consumed him in that moment with equal strength.

'Do you enjoy this, getting the better of me?' he finally managed to say.

Ada leaned in close, and as this happened Leon's breath escaped him, drawing out in a short gasp as her breasts pressed softly against him. He felt the ghost-like gentle touch of her fingers, coming to a stop at the sloppy knot he'd tied with the towel.

Finally she said: 'What I enjoy, Leon, is everything that involves you.'

And then her lips met his, and with a force that seemed more invasive than the first time. The taste of her, this incredible woman, was the most delicious thing he could ever know. It was a paradise – a Shangri-La in human form in that staggering point in time that should have been so much longer. Leon prayed, as he circled his arms around her, that it would never stop.

As her mouth fully invaded his with its masterful grace, he felt the towel fall, but never heard it touch the floor. He was taken, trapped within the ecstasy of Ada's touch; held captive by this one person, who at that point in time, could have willed him to do anything at all. He would have obliged without thought or protest to her every whim or wish, and he would have rejoiced in all of it.

The barest fraction of a frown suddenly touched his face, sending a vague strain though his brow. Something was wrong. For the first few seconds of noticing this new sensation he wasn't all together sure what it was. It invaded the rushing well of his hot and overwhelming frustration little by little. It seemed to suddenly bring a ruinous halt to everything as it made itself known, but at the same time keeping its meaning completely at bay.

And then things changed further. What should have been one of the most engaging moments, where Leon should have been swept away and lost, was instead met with an element that was all together different in its very nature.

The taste of Ada's lips was suddenly rank with a repellent new addition, a taste that mirrored that of stale water; it forced him to recoil instantly, and when he looked at her Ada had fallen completely out of focus. The details of her image were now ambiguous, blurred and softened around all the various edges of her face, as if she was standing behind a rippling sheet of glass, like a window being drenched in falling rain. She didn't move, didn't react to what was now happening; she remained there, trapped, unable to speak or even comprehend, just frozen as Leon watched with a bleak amazement that clouded every corner of his mind.

He attempted to call to her, to reach out with his voice, only to be struck with further complexity still when he realised that he no longer _had_ a voice. To his further surprise and growing shock he found that every time he tried to speak, every time when his mouth would open, water would enter, obscuring his speech as that filthy taste defiled his pallet yet again. He then felt it all around him, freezing water that encased his body as he began to thrash, with no intelligent thought as to what was taking place, only knowing that he needed to escape it.

A threat had made itself known, and he had to get away. Ada had evaporated into the flowing swell of a darkening abyss, one that grew more and more as Leon's eyes truly opened. He had just regained consciousness.

Ada was gone, but that icy chill of water was still welded unflinchingly in reality. Leon did the most natural thing in response to this abrupt and unforeseen turn of events; he began to swim upward, hoping for a breathable surface to greet him before he ran out of breath all together.

Already he felt exertion, his lungs near spent and depleted; he knew that he had maybe a handful of measly seconds left before fighting for his life became the very measure of absolute futility. His limbs felt an overbearing weakness; his head throbbed with a migraine-like drumming, the origin of which couldn't be known or even speculated on at this fleeting but also endless moment.

Just when he had become convinced of the horrible truth, that things were over and done with, when every inch of life meant more to him than anything else, his head broke the surface. A huge shrieking gasp exploded out of him as he swallowed air, taking in as much as physically possible.

Within the next few seconds, as Leon occupied the pitch-black space around him, his breathing returned to some weathered form of normality. He had no clue as to where he might have been, and only after a few more moments did he finally latch on to some recollection; a memory of falling slid into the photo album of his thoughts. He remembered the explosion, the floor giving out like paper beneath unsteady feet, and then falling, plunging and twisted through the air as everything around him lost all shape and form, blurring his world away from him as darkness came to meet him. Now he was awake, after a shade of what may have been a dream, a dream he only possessed a fraction of remembrance toward. It was a dream about a woman. He knew it was a woman, but that was all.

Above all else Leon knew he had to find out where he was. Reaching up toward his ear, he clicked on the small flashlight that was connected to his com-link, and a pale beam of light shot a white path through the dark, cutting through the deep shadows, glimmering across the declining flutter of the water's surface. He tried, with a slight chattering of his teeth, to call in to his team. The communication seemed to be down at present; his com-device was no doubt damaged from the fall (on the plus side he was more than grateful for the intact state of the flashlight) so calling for any kind of help was in no way an option.

Bringing his head around, throwing the light about the area, Leon tried to ascertain what kind of place he'd awoken within; it was a reasonably small chamber that he could see, flooded almost to the ceiling. Leon found an uneven opening above him; it's size suggesting a heavy impact, which answered the question of why he ached all over. It appeared that he might have accidentally located the lab. All he had to do now was finish what had been started. The condition and whereabouts of his team couldn't be known; for the time being he was on his own. He had to get moving.

A further search of the room uncovered the sight of a staircase. It was half submerged, but thankfully led upward, into one of the facility's upper levels. Even now Leon couldn't believe the manner of his entry into this place; the intervention of mercenaries in the sewers had been expected, but not the RPG that had taken out most of the tunnel. Leon couldn't have imagined what they must have been thinking to do that, to pull a stunt that threatened to kill themselves along with their enemy. But still it had brought him to the source of his objective, which lay somewhere in wait, hopefully close by. Dumb luck wasn't how Leon would have described it. This was a higher level of stupidly convenient than even _he_ was used to.

He paddled toward the stairway, and as he travelled the short distance he recalled it fully, remembering the dream he'd had before waking in his previously submerged state. The bright spark of recollection sprung into his mind as he moved through the water, and he knew every detail, all as if it were real. Of course the dream itself, with all its visceral and fevered pleasures, had been very real. It had really happened. It had taken place in the realm of vibrant reality one year ago, and had continued on from that point to an even greater and welcome plethora of realised desires, of all consuming fantasies made flesh. The woman he couldn't forget, even if he wanted to or even tried, had been there; she had come to him that night, just like the night a week before that. And then she had left, vanishing from his life, dropping off of the earth until finally resurfacing only three weeks ago in the Eastern Slav Republic, just as tormenting in her beauty and seduction as she always had been. An enigma rapped in the angelic casing of humanity, and the one thing in Leon's eventful lifetime that he couldn't let go of for anything.

'Ada,' he murmured as he reached the stairs.

Thinking about this now, mulling over the various intricacies involving Ada Wong, was something that he really couldn't afford to be doing. The predicament presented all around him offered very little margin for daydreaming. But he found, as he emerged from the freezing darkness, that he couldn't help but come back to thoughts of their latest meeting, where Ada had openly mentioned their last night together. Of course he had been angry at the time, although perhaps not quite so much as she had suggested. But still, she had called his mood that day, just as she did on every other occasion when they happened to have the strangely mystic fortune of crossing paths. For better or for worse, worse being the case at present, she had worked her way back into his restless dreams.

His feet squelched against the insides of his boots, hissing quietly as water dripped onto the dryer steps further on, spattering them with tiny black dots. A thickening and oppressive silence clung to the air, corrupting Leon's ears with its eerie nothingness, wrapping itself around every inch of the chilled dark. His body faintly shook as his breath blew out in small white clouds within the light of his torch.

Not a thing stirred in the shadows. Nothing lived within the walls of this place, and hadn't for some time. Leon had known since before the mission briefing that the lab had been abandoned for at least a solid decade, but its dank and tomb-like quality gave the illusion that it had been deserted for much longer than a mere ten years. As far as he knew there were no threats that he should be concerned with, and with some stretch of luck there wouldn't be. That was of course if no one else showed up.

The mercs who had faced them in the sewers had been known, even if their drastic measure of insanity hadn't been completed by anyone, not even Leon. It seemed, at this time, that he had inherited the responsibility of fulfilling the objective alone. This was unless linking up with his team was still remotely possible at this stage; they would have had to have been alive for that, and at this uncertain point in time Leon just didn't know for sure if they were.

He tried to clear his mind of any obstructions as best he could manage, focussing on the task at hand. He had almost reached the top of the stairs. The fact that he had no weapons, other than his knife (everything else had surely been lost; even his sidearm was gone) didn't hinder his steps, nor did this latest challenge weaken his wealth of confidence in any fashion. He had a mission goal to achieve, and nothing was going to deter him now, not even the keen and intoxicating memories of the woman he couldn't deny his true feelings for. He would have to entertain those thoughts of Ada later. He had the feeling that "Later" wouldn't be very far into the night.

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_I'll try to get the second part out as soon as I can. I'm also working on the latest chapter of Secrets Revealed, so that shouldn't be too long either, hopefully. I hope you all like this first chapter. Bye for now._


	2. Chapter 2

_Finally, I've updated! Sorry if it took a w__hile. I'm a little bit nervous about the beginning of this chapter, as I've never written a scene like this before. I almost didn't put it in. Please let me know what you think of it. Any feedback will be appreciated._**  
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**Caught Within The Mist**

**Chapter Two**

In a world that was entirely his own, that was where Leon was; somewhere between the place that was known to most as the real world and the utterly sublime and devastatingly erotic.

Lying on his back, his chest rose and fell as his rushing heart forced it further skyward. He was breathing hard; short and gasping clouds of air broke free as his eyes remained fixed in place. He gazed up into Ada's face. She focused her own eyes right back, penetrating them deep into his as she remained there, naked and straddled atop him, with him inside of her. There was a gleaming sheet of perspiration clinging to her skin; her rigorous back and forward motions gained in momentum, accelerating. Her racing breath rose over the volume of his own as she increased her excruciatingly powerful rhythm, like a locomotive that was driving all logic, all common sense and reason, out of what remained of Leon's feverish mind.

His hands were grasping tightly to her shifting hips, feeling the strength rippling through her muscles as she propelled them like organic pistons. It was as if that part of her body were its own entity, and was unable to comprehend exhaustion, like a perpetual thing that wouldn't stop – wouldn't die. She regarded him from where she sat, maintaining her motions. Leon thought that he'd seen just a slight smile flicker across her face for a second.

She was without equal, a beauty like none he'd ever known anywhere else – in any time or place. She gracefully and yet forcefully ground herself against him, bringing him to an even greater state of arousal. Her hands pressed hard against his chest for support, and every so often she would tease with them, raking her nails across his skin, searing into him a burning sensation that he could never consider unpleasant.

He was in heaven, removed from the earthly grief that consumed the hours of the day, and of the night when _she _wasn't there, when she wasn't with him. Leon suddenly rose, sitting upward, wrapping his arms around her waist as she remained in his lap. Her long legs circled his waist, constricting around him with suffocating strength. Her arms snaked around his neck, and she moved in, plunging a dominating kiss to his mouth, one that almost stole all breath from his burning lungs. He returned her affections with equal ferocity, pushing deeper into her until he felt that he could take no more. Her pleasure also rocketed further still when he felt a deep roaring shudder vibrate its way through Ada's aroused flesh, pulsating through her entire body.

An uncontrollable sound, somewhere between an ecstatic cry and a violent moan, escaped from between Ada's quivering lips. Her sounds reached an outright exclamation as her body shook; she held tightly to him, and he could feel the sting of her nails in his back as moments later his peak exploded into reality. Everything shifted, pulling apart, levelling every particle, every fibre, ripping him from his seat in solid matter. He was thrown into a raging paradise of senses that took hold of his sanity, sucking it from him as he gripped on to her, as moistened waves of unthinking feeling quaked their way through the both of them.

The blaze fell from him after a time, but still he reeled from the experience. He held on to her as she did with him, collapsing into each other, as they remained seated within one another. Silence gripped at the bedroom, like an animated thing that seemed to bother neither of them. They recovered themselves slowly, staying in the centre of the bed. No one spoke. No one needed to speak.

Leon raised a hand, brushing portions of Ada's dishevelled hair from her face. He observed her tiredly satisfied features, into her glazed over eyes. She looked back at him; a contented gleam was held within her gaze, but other than that he couldn't have guessed what was passing through her mind. But he didn't care, at least not yet.

The unforeseen events had stretched on for some time, an unknown number of hours. Leon and his late night visitor had taken themselves deeper into their latest encounter with an all-powerful enthusiasm. Both had become walking and talking hormones with arms and legs, controlled by their most basic needs like lusting marionettes. They had removed themselves into the early hours without uttering another word, taken hostage by a delightfully fragrant aphrodisiac that swirled throughout the apartment. All conversation had ended at the door; neither commenting, but both were sensitive to the other, fully aware and completely submissive to everything that took place the moment they had entered Leon's bedroom.

And now, for the time being, there was a peaceful calm around them as they lay there. They were side by side on the bed, neither one making any effort to cover themselves with the sheet, the crumpled stretch of fabric that had at some point arrived in a heap on the floor. They were bare and uncaring before each other, with modesty unwilling to resurface at this moment in time.

For now all Leon wanted was to remain where he was, with Ada right next to him, preferably until the sun came up. Why would he want things any other way, he asked himself? He didn't. He couldn't. He could not wish her away anymore than he could throw himself off of a bridge. It just wasn't in him to do this, nor was it something he wanted to think about. Nevertheless he knew it would come, whether it be two minutes from now or two hours: Ada would rise from the bed, steal a shower like she did the first time, and then she'd be on her way. Just like that. Over. It would be as if she never existed, except for in his memory, like an imaginary goddess from the night time hours.

Minutes, or maybe even as long as an hour (Leon thought it could easily have been that long) had passed. Ada finally began to move, and he felt that slight pang of regret. Except she didn't get off the bed, but instead rolled onto her side, facing him. He turned his body to do the same, both of them practically nose to nose with the other, silently peering into each other's eyes, the apparent windows to the soul.

'That was more energetic than last time,' she whispered, her face half concealed by shadow, the other half palely aglow from the moon that cast its white light through Leon's window.

'Well, you've only got yourself to blame,' he quietly replied. 'You're the dominant one, remember?'

'I was talking about you.'

Leon couldn't conceal his surprise. 'Me?'

'If I didn't know better, I'd say you don't want me to leave.'

'So I played rough so you'd be too tired to stand up? Is that what you're saying?'

A sensual grin slipped into her expression, and it sent a warm flutter through his stomach. 'I haven't tried to stand yet, so your plan might have succeeded.'

'You think I had a plan this whole time?'

'Didn't you?'

'Ada, I didn't even know you were coming.'

Her grip deepened. 'So you didn't feel that tremor at the end?'

'I was talking about– '

'I know what you meant, Leon,' she winked at him, reaching over with one hand and running her fingers over his chest. 'Can't I play with you just a little bit?'

A wave, or perhaps something more along the lines of a tsunami, of embarrassment shook its way through him in response to her words. In the time he'd known her, on the occasions he had been with her during harsher times, he'd never known this side of Ada Wong, not until a few nights previous.

It was a strange feeling that filled him up when speaking with her, in an environment that held no blood, no death; it was just the two of them in a quiet room, during the aftermath of a sexual scenario like he'd never felt before. In all his time no woman had ever caused such a wealth of sensation and eruption within him – in or out of bed. Whether he be sleeping with Ada, fighting along side her, or the act of exchanging words, no one else had ever cast such a spell, such a trance that ruled his will like the coiled snake that wouldn't release its prey for the simple sake of its nature.

'Ada,' he finally said. 'All you do is play with me.'

'Maybe,' she replied, moving her hand down along his stomach, going further and further. 'But… when I _do _play, you've never protested.'

Leon felt a swell of heat as Ada's hand grasped him. But despite some degree of resignation he resisted. 'You'll have to give me a sec. I think you broke me.'

She raised an eyebrow. 'Too tired?'

'For now.'

'Sissy.'

He said nothing. Instead he wondered if she would ever truly be honest with him? If he came out and simply asked her something, anything, would she answer truthfully? It wasn't as if he had anything to lose in the matter. He would ask and she could do one of possibly three things: she would either answer, or avoid answering completely, or make something up. Leon thought that the latter was the most likely to happen, since her honesty could easily be called into question. And as far as not responding at all, well, that simply wasn't Ada's style; she always had a response, no matter what someone were to throw her way.

'Can I ask you a personal question?'

'More personal than this?' she said, although her expression never wavered. 'This should be interesting.'

Leon took a slow breath. 'Do you ever see anything in your life, you know, in the future? After this?'

'Beyond spending the night with someone?'

'Beyond the work,' he said. 'When everything that's worth fighting for is all gone or when you're too old to run around ducking bullets and claws. Do you ever want anything for yourself after all of… all of this?'

Ada seemed to consider the question for a time; she looked away, her eyes wandering to no particular point. She frowned. Creases pulled their way between her eyebrows; they were only faint, but still, they were there.

'Honestly, Leon,' she began. 'I've never really thought about it. I usually live one day at a time; I don't wonder what the following decades might hold anymore than I dwell in the past. The past only serves as a cautionary tale. Nothing more.'

Leon wasn't entirely surprised to hear this, and yet it still depressed him to hear her say the words. He wasn't sure if he ever expected any other answer.

'So, there's nothing? All there is for you is in the here and now?'

'Afraid so,' she said, focusing on him again. Her playfulness had evaporated. 'No retirement plan, no church wedding to the man of my dreams, no house on the hill with the picket fence with brats scurrying under my feet. And certainly no loving husband to kiss on the cheek when he heads off to work.'

Wishing that the last part didn't sting was one thing, but it was quite another for it to be anything but true. Leon felt that sting with almost every sense he possessed, making him wonder what he must be thinking to even expect such a thing to come true in the first place.

'You must want something.'

'Right now, I'm fine with this.'

Leon looked away from her. 'Oh.'

'Isn't it enough for you?'

He didn't reply at once, but took a few seconds to meet her questioning stare. He could see that she wasn't as pleased with the situation as she had been moments ago.

'No,' he said. 'Sorry, but there's only so long I can do this without wanting more.'

He wasn't entirely certain he'd seen it, but for the briefest of instances, he thought he'd caught a slither of sadness flying through her eyes. And then it was gone.

'Leon,' she paused. 'This… it's all I have to give.'

Breathing a deep sigh, Leon shifted onto his back. The ceiling offered him no comfort as he looked straight up. He could still see Ada in the corner of his eye, watching him, waiting expectantly.

'I had a feeling you'd say that.' he said

'Would you rather I wasn't here at all?' she asked, her displeasure now quite apparent. 'Because you seemed quite content earlier on.'

'No,' Leon responded, maybe a little too harshly. 'It's not… it's just that… '

'Just what?'

'Nothing.'

'Leon?'

He tried to force the words out, but knew that they were driven mostly by anger, and were therefore partial to a selfish and somewhat senseless way of thinking. She didn't see the world, or relationships, the way he did and would no doubt argue her case without a moments pause. He didn't want to fight with her about this, but he almost seethed at the situation. No. He did in fact hate it already.

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Something horrifyingly repellent, a sound so charged with malevolent hate, called out, like a siren of the apocalypse. It rang out from some hidden place in the dark of the underground, bringing Leon out of his reluctant memory lane in less than a heartbeat.

He cursed himself yet again, for allowing his mind to be clouded over at such a time. Focus was paramount and still he had slipped; his thoughts had lurked about that night with Ada for the thousandth time. He stepped through the passage, his knife raised; the soles of his boots created faint patting sounds as they touched down on the damp floor. He didn't like that noise he'd heard. However as much as its vicious intent hung in his ears he at least knew that he was closer to his objective than he thought. At least he thought he was.

The mission had seemed fairly straightforward during the briefing. There had been no details regarding B.O.W activity at all. And now Leon's fingers were cold around the knife, and his doubts of taking the creature by himself and with nothing but a blade rose in their growth by the second.

For long moments there was nothing, no sound but that of his own breathing, which he had lowered as best he could as he tried to listen. He wondered just what kind of monster was lurking the passageways, lying in wait?

The trip to Los Angeles had first taken root with the revelation that Umbrella, before their demise, had left behind yet another little secret, just lying around unchecked. Leon had only been alerted to the problem two days before. The reason had been simple enough at the time. His people had received a tip-off from an anonymous source, dropping them information concerning the existence of an abandoned research facility beneath the LA streets. There apparently remained samples of some new virus that the company had been cooking up before it sank into the depths of memory, something they hadn't the chance to fully test but was considered to be powerful enough to overshadow anything that came before it.

Was this information genuine? Leon was convinced that it was. Certainly this had been made clear enough with the intervention from the mercenaries. But that had been the other thing: this unknown informer had also been the one to warn them of a possible interruption from hired guns. Leon didn't much care about this mysterious figure however; that was someone else's job. His chief concern now was putting an end to the threat, and also discovering his team. They couldn't all be dead; he had helped train most of them, and they were a competent bunch. He refused to believe that each and every one of them had fallen in action. But again, he just didn't know, and wouldn't know until he picked up the pace.

The tunnel before him was narrow, and seemed to stretch on for a good length before turning off to the right. Leon's light cast a sizable white glow against his path, revealing the aging detail of the place; it was without a doubt tomb-like in its appearance and with the eerie chill that clung to the air. That being said, he hadn't seen any sign of any lab equipment yet, or the thing that had only just now cried out for blood. For all he knew the creature could have been anywhere by now. Perhaps it had even left the area all together? It may have moved on, getting further away from him by the second?

Gunfire suddenly ripped out through the dark, cutting its way across the absence of sound like a surgical incision. Leon froze for a moment. He thought he recognised the sounds; it sounded like the standard issue assault rifle, the kind that his team had been using. It was coming from further on ahead. It had begun at first as a continuous stretch of fire, streaming out for a couple of seconds, but then had quickly shrunk to short irregular bursts. Whoever it was, Leon knew they were terrified without ever having to see the person's face.

He pushed into a jog. One of his people had managed to make it down into the facility. He had to reach them before whatever they were battling against had a chance to finish them.

Then the scream came, the blood curdling roar that only occurred when flesh and bone had been pulled away from each other. It was the truest agony he had ever heard. And as he pushed faster, racing without consideration toward the turning, his light shown upon the upcoming wall, just as a vibrant shower of crimson splashed across its surface. He watched as it drew deep lines of red toward the ground.

When he reached the corner he didn't even have the time to turn in the newly presented direction when something flew by his head. In the split second that this had transpired he had made out the shape of the separated human torso, but he didn't look as it crashed against the wall to his left. Instead Leon turned toward where it had come from. His blood iced over when he saw it.

The light caught something; he had no other word for it other than something, due to the uncompromising fact that he had never seen anything like it. It was almost like a moving shadow, a cloud of blackened tentacles of animated mist, choking up the corridor ten feet in front of him. His grip on the knife stiffened, although he wasn't entirely sure why; something told him that stabbing this thing wouldn't do much good. It was made of nothing but pure darkness, with no recognisable body park to speak of. He honestly had no clue as to what he was looking at in terms of a living thing. He thought for a moment of retreating, of heading back the way he had come? Maybe climb the opening he'd fallen through? No time, he thought. He might make it to the opening, but it would be on him before he could make the climb. It appeared that making his stand right there was now the only option left.

Two eyes, hunger driven in their scarlet brightness appeared in the mass of shadow. They burned at him, wide and alive with an evil intellect that would have frozen almost anyone else in their tracks. Still and petrified for all time. A brief hint of a mouth came into view beneath the eyes, and for a second revealed an unreal number of teeth, all varying in their freakish length. A horrific growl gargled its way out from the cloud.

Leon readied himself, his weapon raised; other than this simply action the rest of his body didn't budge. He waited for it to come forward. If it had a face then surely there must have been a body somewhere? Finding it was something that he was now fully intent on doing before the end.

And then, just like that, the creature retreated. Its vapour-ish mass shifted away, flowing backward and disappearing through a doorway at the far end of the corridor. Leon stood there, feeling a sense of relief that was only matched by the puzzlement of what had just happened. Why hadn't it attacked, he wondered? It could have struck out at any moment; the drive to kill was certainly there, but for some reason it had instead chosen to move on. He didn't think for a second that it had been afraid. It had killed one of his team easily, even after multiple rounds fired.

It appeared that he had avoided a confrontation for the time being. He turned to view what remained of the person behind him; as much as he didn't want to he knew he had to see it with his own eyes. Even after so long the sight of the dead still unsettled him on some small level.

The torso lay only a couple of feet away, facing down in a pool of its own blood. Leon crouched, hoping to discover the identity of this unfortunate soul. Even more unfortunate was that the person before him, what was left of them, had no face to speak of, having been torn off from the bone completely. There wasn't much left, but there was just enough for Leon to know that this team member had been male. Something else caught his eye: a small scar, a fading crescent moon shape, just sitting between two knuckles of the man's right had.

'Cooper,' he said.

Ryan Cooper, a young but promising new agent. He had not long been with Leon's division, and had been assigned to the team at the last minute. Guilt clung to Leon at seeing his remains, for not reaching him in time but also for not knowing much else about the young man. It didn't push away the difficulty of viewing the scene before him, and he felt a burning disgust toward the beast responsible.

Cooper had managed to get down into the facility, Leon thought; he was pretty green, working alongside people with much more experience, so it was reasonable to guess that the others might not be far away, and had indeed survived the skirmish in the sewers. If any of them heard the gunfire then they could already be coming up on the passage by now. Leon hoped that they didn't come to the same terrible end as this poor kid had, fading away well before his time had come.

There wasn't any time for mourning yet. He had to prioritise if he wanted to make any progress. Leon felt a speckle of good fortune sitting among the morbid sight; Cooper's rifle was still hanging around his neck by the strap. He quickly scooped the harness from under Cooper's head, ignoring the slickness that smeared across the palm of his hand. Checking the mag, Leon found that it was now empty. Thankfully the kid had two extra clips in his vest pockets. Leon stored one away, loading the other into place; its metallic click as he slapped it into place offered him some measure of security at least. The weapon hadn't helped Cooper, rest his soul, but having a few bullets on hand couldn't hurt at this stage.

A further inspection produced a single grenade. Leon was pleased with this find, maybe even more so than the assault rifle. If all else failed then an explosive might be handy in a pinch. Lets hope that bastard goes boom like everything else, he thought.

There was only one thing to do now, and that was to push on in the hopes of finding someone else. With any luck he'd be able to avoid a conflict with the creature until he could figure out a way of killing it. However if a fight was forced upon his head then at least he now had a chance. That was at least better than nothing at all.


End file.
